Events

Date: 10 March 2026   Time: 14:30 - 15:30

Location: MB503

NOTE: No pre talk this week, so seminar starting at 2.30pm

Title: A "dictionary" to test GR with GW: from observations to theory

Abstract: GR, while one of the most successful and well-tested theories to date, is expected to receive corrections at high energies—through higher-curvature terms, additional degrees of freedom, or both. Given the vast landscape of possible extensions, how can we test them in a systematic way?
I will present a general framework for interpreting deviations in gravitational wave data, focusing on the inspiral regime probed by LIGO. The key idea is that genuine beyond-GR effects exhibit characteristic mass scalings, determined by the curvature order and field content of the underlying theory. Using techniques from Post-Newtonian Effective Field Theory (PN-EFT), we construct a dictionary between such corrections and their imprint on the waveform. This allows broad classes of higher-curvature modifications to be identified or constrained directly from data, without relying on specific models. The talk will be based on arXiv:2507.17143.